Local Government: Pay

Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will take steps to moderate the level of local authority chief executive and senior officer  (a) salaries and  (b) early retirement payments; if he will place restrictions on such people taking new jobs at a senior level in the public sector within a specified period of taking early retirement; and if he will make a statement.

Bob Neill: holding answer 11 October 2010
	Decisions about the salaries of local authority chief executives and senior officers, and any early retirement payments which either fall within the appropriate pay negotiating machinery, or the appropriate regulatory framework are matters for each local authority employer to consider in the light of local circumstances. While the specific terms and conditions of current and future employment is a matter for the relevant local authority to consider, the Secretary of State has recently called for the most senior local government officers to take a voluntary reduction in pay and also stated that no new council chief executive should be paid more than the Prime Minister.
	The Government's view is that there needs to be greater local democratic accountability and transparency over senior remuneration arrangements and policies within local government. In order to achieve this, the Government intend to bring forward proposals to ensure that councillors are better able to be held to account for their decisions on senior pay by providing them with the power to vote on their council's remuneration policies. On senior pay transparency, the Local Government Association (LGA) recently published draft guidance to support councils publish their senior salary information online. The guidance was published on 1 October and can be viewed and commented on at:
	http://lgtransparency.readandcomment.com/

Apex Communications

Ian Liddell-Grainger: To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the Speaker's Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, how much Apex Communications was paid for its work in establishing the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority; and what its remit was.

Charles Walker: Apex Communications were paid £69,375 for work conducted over the period October 2009-July 2010. Apex was commissioned to provide a press office capability to deal with a high level of media interest and to organise activities. Apex then helped to establish and support IPSA's small in-house communications team. While the process of recruiting a director of communications was undertaken, they continued to provide practical help and strategic communication advice to IPSA through to July 2010.

Departmental Public Expenditure

Angela Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will take steps to enable  (a) vulnerable,  (b) disabled and  (c) other people to participate in local decisions on identification of (i) areas in which savings may be made and (ii) services for which funding should be maintained at current levels in respect of proposed reductions in area-based grant funding.

Bob Neill: I have been asked to reply.
	Decisions on the level of future grant support for local authorities is being considered in the context of the spending review. The spending review is being run in an open, responsible and fair way that protects the poorest and most vulnerable in our society. We have consulted broadly with the public over the summer through the Spending Challenge. This has meant engaging and involving the whole country in the difficult decisions that will have to be taken.
	Some councils are using effective ways of engaging the community in making decisions about what to invest resources in and where to make savings. For example, a number of councils are using a. web-based consultation tool called YouChoose, developed by LB Redbridge:
	http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=22436695
	This enables the public to be involved in the process and also helps them to understand the difficult choices facing councils. I would commend this approach to any council wishing to improve contributions from the community; and to go further by giving local people a direct say in spending as a part of the budget in a participatory budgeting exercise.
	The most promising ideas will be taken forward in time for the spending review on 20 October. We will limit as far as possible the impact of reductions in spending on the most vulnerable in society, and on those regions heavily dependent on the public sector.

Convictions

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Garston and Halewood of 26 July 2010,  Official Report, columns 684-86W, on convictions, what assessment he has made of the reason for the trends in conviction rates for  (a) theft and  (b) burglary in a dwelling between 2001 and 2008.

Dominic Grieve: I have been asked to reply.
	On 26 July 2010, the Secretary of State for Justice reported that the conviction rate for theft had increased from 79% in 1999 to 90% in 2008 and the conviction rate for burglary had increased from 63% to 74% over the same period.
	The data shows that performance started to improve noticeably after 2003. This coincides with three major initiatives aimed at increasing the effectiveness of criminal case management in the criminal justice system, namely the Charging Programme, the Effective Trial Management Programme and the 'No Witness, No Justice' Programme. It was the combined effect of these major initiatives that helped to deliver the improvement in conviction rates and as Minister responsible for the CPS I am delighted with its role in delivering these outcomes.

Our Life

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether  (a) he and  (b) officials of his Department have discussed with NHS North West the (i) establishment and (ii) funding of the social enterprise Our Life.

Paul Burstow: During the development and establishment phase of the "Our Life" programme, discussions took place between ministers and the North West strategic health authority (SHA). Along with other regional partners, departmental officials had discussions with the SHA in relation to this organisation. There is no requirement for the Department to approve the establishment of social enterprises.
	The Department provided funding to each region to help support the reduction of harm from alcohol at a local level. In the North West, the regional Drink Wise programme contributed to specific projects, including Our Life.
	Further information on the Our Life social enterprise is available at:
	www.northwest.nhs.uk/whatwedo/publichealth/our_life

Departmental Secondment

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many staff his Department has appointed on secondment since 7 May 2010; and from what organisation each such member of staff has been seconded.

David Mundell: The Scotland Office does not employ staff directly. All its staff are on secondment from other public bodies, mainly the Ministry of Justice and the Scottish Government. As at 16 September 2010, the Scotland Office has appointed four members of staff on secondment since 7 May 2010. Two from the Scottish Government and two from the Ministry of Justice.

Departmental Empty Property

Mike Freer: To ask the Attorney-General what the estimated monetary value is of each vacant  (a) building and  (b) parcel of land owned by the Law Officers' Departments in each region.

Edward Garnier: None of the buildings or land owned by the Law Officers Departments is currently vacant.

Domestic Violence

David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  what discussions she has had with the Association of Chief Police Officers on her decision not to proceed with domestic violence protection order pilots;
	(2)  what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of implementing domestic violence protection orders across England and Wales;
	(3)  what her estimate is of the cost of the proposed pilots on domestic violence protection orders to  (a) participating police forces and  (b) her Department for the duration of the pilots;
	(4)  for what reasons she plans not to proceed with the proposed pilots on domestic violence protection orders.

Lynne Featherstone: We have deferred, not halted, the pilot scheme of the Domestic Violence Protection Order (DVPO) so we could understand their potential impact better and be sure that they would work before committing public funds.
	In tough economic times, the Government have to consider options for delivering improved protection and value for money across all aspects of their work. We will give further consideration to work in this area once the outcome of the spending review is known and we have explored options for reducing costs of implementation. We have had representations from a range of organisations and will keep the Association of Chief Police Officers and other partners involved in discussions about this.
	The costs of implementing Domestic Violence Protection Orders (DVPOs) across England and Wales would be impacted by a range of factors, including take-up, and it is not possible to accurately estimate these until a pilot has taken place. The estimated cost for piloting the scheme within two police force areas was £700,000 based on an assumption of 250-300 possible applications for DVPOs across a 6-12 month period over the two areas.

Firearms

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 20 July 2010,  Official Report, column 199W, on firearms, whether her Department intends to publish a report of the National Ballistics Intelligence Service's work on the illegal use of shotguns.

James Brokenshire: The National Ballistics Intelligence Service (NABIS) delivers a range of intelligence assessments and problem profiles to UK law enforcement organisations. The Service's role is to build these profiles in order to inform and develop operational activity that protects the communities of the United Kingdom from the threat of firearms crime. This includes the use, supply, manufacture and smuggling of illegal weapons into and with UK borders.
	These assessments, and subsequent activity, are of a sensitive nature and often involve a range of law enforcement activities across multiple agencies and forces. In order to protect operational activity and intelligence gathering resources and techniques, NABIS does not share this information in the public domain and it would be inappropriate for Government to ask it to do so. NABIS may periodically share information relating to operational activity where a particular threat has been removed; however this is done on a case by case basis.

Comprehensive Spending Review

Penny Mordaunt: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions he has had with ministerial colleagues on joint working between Departments as part of the comprehensive spending review.

Danny Alexander: The Prime Minister has appointed PEX to advise Cabinet on the high level decisions that will need to be taken in the spending review, including the approach to cross-cutting issues.
	To support closer collaboration, the Treasury encouraged Departments to submit joint spending review submissions on key cross-cutting issues.
	Joint working will continue to be important through the spending review period, including exploration of place-based budgets to encourage local budget holders to work together to deliver local priorities.

National Apprenticeship Service

Jack Dromey: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many businesses used the National Apprenticeship Service in  (a) 2008-09 and  (b) 2009-10; and what the average cost to the public purse was of the service provided to such a business.

John Hayes: The National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) was established on 1 April 2009 as the first organisation established solely to promote apprenticeships to employers and young people. NAS does not hold information on the average cost to the public purse of supporting individual employers with these services.
	Employers may work with the National Apprenticeship Service either directly or by accessing a range of services including: a dedicated telephone support line; apprenticeship website; and apprenticeship vacancies, the on line recruitment system.
	In the financial year 2009-10:
	18,500 employers interested in apprenticeships contacted the apprenticeship national helpline. In addition 16,471 other individuals also used the helpline with apprenticeship enquiries(1).
	About 2,600,000 visits were made to the apprenticeship website by individuals, employers and other organisations and 7,455 employers completed an employer web enquiry form(2).
	Around 10,400 employers advertised for and recruited apprentices using apprenticeship vacancies (the on line system)(3).
	Direct Mail and telemarketing activities allowed NAS to directly contact over 100,000 businesses to drive up leads for NAS sales teams to convert into new apprenticeship places. On top of this NAS sales managers contacted 27,000 businesses through events, intermediaries and their own calls(4).
	(1) Statistics supplied by Call Credit the helpline contracted provider for the National Apprenticeship Service.
	(2) Webtrends analytical software.
	(3) Apprenticeship vacancy online system data.
	(4) These additional statistics are derived from NAS records including the customer tracking system (CRM)-these have not been published externally.

Train to Gain Programme

Jack Dromey: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many businesses made use of the Train to Gain service in  (a) 2007-08,  (b) 2008-09 and  (c) 2009-10.

John Hayes: The Train to Gain Brokerage Service recorded the number of businesses who engaged with the Train to Gain provision through the Brokerage Service between 2006/07 and 2008/09 as follows:
	2006/07: 51,600 (note this figure includes 4,000 employers engaged through the former Employer Training Pilots between April and July 2006);
	2007/08: 52,100
	2008/09: 39,700
	In April 2009 the Train to Gain Brokerage services was integrated into Business Link. Figures recorded by Business Link for Employer Engagement indicate that for:
	April 2009: July 2009 there were 16,149 employer engagements
	August 2009: June 2010 there were 51,329 employer engagements.
	No data are collected centrally on those employers who chose to access Train to Gain directly, either through a college or training provider.

Departmental Fines

Stewart Hosie: To ask the Prime Minister how many transport-related fines his Office has settled on behalf of its staff in each year since 2005; and what the cost to the public purse was in each such year.

David Cameron: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office on 11 October 2010,  Official Report, column 249W.

Departmental Contracts

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the monetary value is of contracts his Department has awarded to each  (a) management consultancy and  (b) IT company since 7 May 2010.

Alistair Burt: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) signed a contract with Cable and Wireless Worldwide on 13 September 2010 for the provision of global telephony, data and video conferencing services. The Echo programme is a framework agreement for a period of 5.5 years, against which the FCO and its partners (UK Border Agency (UKBA) and the Department for International Development) can call-off services as required. The current expectation is that the FCO and UKBA will together call-off £82 million for services over 5.5 years. This framework contract will provide faster, cheaper and more reliable video conferencing, telephony and internet. The contract will save the tax payer up to £90 million, and will reduce flights, travel and carbon emissions through the increased use of videoconferencing.
	There were no contracts awarded under management consultancy.